The Food Not Taken (or Taken)

[hartlikeawheel]

Mike inspired me.

When I was a kid I absolutely could not eat bell peppers, potato salad or fresh tomatos.

Then after tasting each at different times in my teens I discovered that I liked each of them. Maybe our taste buds change as we mature.

A story - when I traveled with the college choir we were dependent on the kindness of the Lutheran Church Basement Ladies and the recipe of the year must have been that one where you mixed chicken, dressing, (yeah, stuffing) and gravy and baked it all in a cake pan. It was fairly solid and could be cut into squares.

And besides red jello it seems that's all we were served everywhere we went. I hated it. Argh.

Well maybe there was pudding for dessert.

I drank a considerable amount of vodka on that trip to keep my strength up!

You gotta be one fine cook to make decent stuffing (yeah, dressing)

Let's talk about food we don't like and like that.

[mike]

Spanish rice... no-can-do!

The first time I saw Spanish rice was in elementary school. When the cafeteria lady plopped some down on my tray, I knew, this was not going to be eaten by me.

[hartlikeawheel]

Oh lord, yes, Mike. I used to cook for a living in a place where I had to use govt. provided food and that danged rice is nasty. You can't even get it off of the serving spoon.

Heehee. Yeah, you gotta give the spoon a hearty "plop" to get the stuff onto the plate.

The Packrat told me once he had to throw up - 's'cuse - after being forced to eat Spanish rice in grade school. Did you get into trouble for not cleaning your plate? Remember that?

I used to throw stuff under the table because we couldn't move until our plates were clean. Geez.

That Depression mentality.

Reminded me of Dad. Whenever he didn't want to eat his veggies he used to store them under his mom's table which had some sort of a ledge underneath the edges. Later when she discovered the mummified remains she'd supposedly have no clue which of the kids had done that. Yeah, ok.

I make a mean dish of Mexican rice that I serve with enchiladas and I'll bet you could eat that.

I'll find a place to post the recipe.

And Babe provided me with the most wonderful sweet rice which is most edible even without it being Spanishized.

[hartlikeawheel]

I can't find a place to post and I have long since bowderlized this recipe so:

Arroz Cominos

1C. long grained white rice
2 C. chicken broth
2 T. butter
Some diced green or red bell pepper or both
Chopped onion
1t. cumin
A small bit of yellow food coloring

Put in a heavy sauce pan with a tight lid. Bring to a boil. Turn to the lowest heat and let simmer for 14 min. (don't ask me why)

Then turn off the heat. Don't peek! Let stand for about ten min. Remove lid and fluff with a fork. Let moisture dissipate. Heh. Don't you love them big words in recipes?

Actually you could displace some of the broth with salsa if you'd care to. Then you'd have to add a bit more broth. Heh.

People seem to like this version of "Spanish rice" and it is easy to do.

Promise you won't puke.

[mike]

Not fond of...

Green peas
Lima beans
Kidney beans
Kidney pie
Instant mash potatoes

Who invented instant mash potatoes? It's an insult to humanity. Death to the inventor of instant mash potatoes! OK, that's a little harsh... diaper rash to the inventor of instant mash potatoes!

I don't like Salisbury Steak.

TV dinners are the work of the devil... many an instant mash potato found it's way into a TV dinner.

Three bean salad -- the work of Lutherans gone bad!

[scotbrit]

I very much agree Mike's sentiments about instant mash. I had a short experience in a job which came to a sticky end.

Let me explain: When the penniless George came to London I took any job that was available, so I worked as a barman for some while then applied for a job selling adhesives with a company that was founded in the 19th century making glue and gelatine from horses hooves.

By the 1960's they had discovered a mineral (chemically enhanced) that made excellent glue. Suddenly, the cost of the raw material shot up by about 500% and the company was soon out of business.

Reason? The basic raw material for the adhesive was the same as what was required for instant mash. The glue company could not compete with the food manufacturing giants.

See what I mean about a sticky end?

[Gracie]

I knew I liked you two.....

Instant mashed potatoes are an abomination. When I was the head cook at camp that was the first thing I banished. All my staffers grumbled about peeling 50 pounds of potatoes for the first dinner featuring mashed potatoes....until they tasted them. (Maybe the homemade fried chicken and not-from-a-mix gravy helped, too, I'm not sure....) After that, they promised they would peel potatoes for me anytime!

Now what I can't stand is anything greasy, and I hate overcooked veggies, and mushy pasta is just disGUSting. And tuna noodle casserole (ok, let GK call it hotdish, it's still narsty) should be banished from the face of the earth. I don't make many casseroles, actually, because my mom made so many of them (had to stretch the grocery dollars) and I have never bought a can of cream of mushroom soup since I left home in 1978!

[slb2]

Foods I don't like to eat:
green olives (but I eat one every Christmas so that someday I develop a taste for them)
kim chee
anchovies
talapia
herring
lutefisk
fried chicken
any food containing chicken with it's skin still on (shudder--used to butcher and de-feather chickens at my grandparents' farm)
white bread
peanut butter and jelly mixed together
cream of mushroom, celery, whatever soup
greasy hotdishes at church potlucks
chocolate frosting
breath mints
red hots

[hartlikeawheel]

I am laughing aready.

But if you guys like twice baked potatoes you can make a reasonably good and quicker fascimile out of instant mashed potatoes by using all milk or cream instead of any water, extra butter, instant minced onions, some sour cream, real bacon bits and topping the whole thing with a good melting cheese. This ain't too bad if you are in a hurry.

Try not to think about what you may be ingesting.

I just cannot stand anything fishy. Sardines, herring, oysters and stuff like that. And if The Packrat eats anything like that he is not allowed to come anywhere near me until it has worn off of his breath.

I'm with Mike about the bean issue. Learning to eat several types of them but I remember during grade school days when chili was for lunch and I'd ask for chili without any beans and the cooks would look at me like that was an impossibility and it was.

[Trusty]

Several foods with which I've had problems (This list is far from complete.):

Buttermilk - It's about the way the glass looks after afterwards.

Beef Tongue - I don't want to lick something that's gonna lick me back. (That's reserved for kissing )

And, as a child with an imagination, there were foods that I couldn't eat because of their names:
mushrooms - (I like them now. Gimme a better name, though.)
artichoke - (Sure that isn't a verb?)
turnips - (I want to DIGEST my food, thank you.)

And lastly, the slime factor: okra.

[slb2]

Trusty, are you saying that you drink buttermilk straight up?



I use it in my pancakes and muffins and bake the stuff!

[Trusty]

slb2 said:

Trusty, are you saying that you drink buttermilk straight up?



I use it in my pancakes and muffins and bake the stuff!

Noooooooooo!!!

But, I know I would love your pancakes.

[hartlikeawheel]

Little Suzie snackcakesl Heehee.

Winkin' Suze.

[Gracie]

admin said:

slb2 said:

Trusty, are you saying that you drink buttermilk straight up?



I use it in my pancakes and muffins and bake the stuff!

Noooooooooo!!!

But, I know I would love your pancakes.

I use buttermilk in dozens of recipes, you betcha in my homemade pancakes (which gets me in trouble at the farm when we visit the in-laws and Betsy is given a plate of pancake-mix-and-water cakes and tells Granny that "MY mommy makes the BESTEST pancakes ever!" Oh my, does that ever win me some points...or not.)

BUT. A few years back I wanted milkshakes and was trying to lose weight (a neverending story) and I got this idea and here is the result and I SWEAR you will think you are drinking cheesecake. My buddies at Weight Watchers just loved this.


For one shake:

Pour 1 c. buttermilk in blender. Add 1 c. frozen strawberries (or 1 c. fresh berries and 1/2 c. ice) and 3 drops lemon extract. Add whatever artificial sweetener you use; once upon a time I used Equal, now it is stevia and sometimes I say what the heck and use a little raw sugar. Blend it. Taste it, and add more sweetener if this is too tart.

This is thick and frosty and deeeeeeeeeeeeelicious.

[hartlikeawheel]

Yum, Gracie.

When the Packrat was little there were so many of them that they seldom got to "go to town." But once he had a dollar in his pocket and his folks set him free on a Saturday night.

He had seen an old western movie where the hero had gone into the saloon and ordered buttermilk and was entranced.

He went into the local cafe, bellied up to the bar and ordered a glass. Needless to say it was more than a disappointment and he didn't even have a six-shooter to pull out and shoot the server.

Want good fried chicken? Marinate it overnight in buttermilk and then dredge in flour and salt/pepper before frying.

Onion rings? Slice them thinner than thin. Marinate in buttermilk and minced jalapenos. Grab whole handfuls and dip in flour. No need to try to do them seperately. Fry in vegetable oil. This will go quick. They are tasty.

[joew]

My father occasionally drank buttermilk, so I think I ought to, but I don't get around to it.

And now, for something completely different, but still on topic —
I don't want to have any more sea urchin sushi, thank you very much.

[hartlikeawheel]

There is a kind of thing, it seems, for men to eat icky things.

Head cheese, blood polsa, various unspeakable innards and outereds. It's nearly a ritual around where I live that they have these "feeds" at the Legion Club. Yes, that's "feeds", as in cattle.

The Chef grew up with two Grandpas who took delight in introducing her to the most unspeakable things to eat.

They are both gone now but she hit it off really well with her Sweetie's grandpa who came from the same sort of men's club and could feed her about anything and took delight in her eating it with relish.

Relish? Who said anything about relish?

She and a fellow Chef take trips to Minneapolis to eat sushi and it totally disgusts me the kinds of things that girl will consume! I have seen her eat fried WHOLE shrimp - feelers, eyes, heads,
legs, tails and all. I paid a small fortune to watch that one. Ack.

I was once at a graduation party where a delicious smoked fish was served and I ate well more than my share of it. I finally asked what it was and was told that it was "lake trout."

Not ever having heard of lake trout before I did more questioning and found out I was eating smoked carp.

Now have you ever seen a live carp? They are not a pretty fish and they eat crap, literally crap, off the bottom of the water they live in.

Guess it goes to show that food can be ok if you don't know what it is. I often wonder who was the first brave person to eat a lobster.

My missionary friend was once forced by politeness to eat boiled monkey and another time enormous fried grub worms wrapped in banana leaves. At least they were dead.

[booklady]

My father used to drink buttermilk with a few drops of Tabasco and some pepper dumped in it. Ick!! I agree with whoever said the way the glass looks afterwards is enough to make me never drink it.

[mike]

I drank butter milk... once.

[brutus]

I absolutely cannot stand the buttermilk that is available in the grocery store.
The creamery where I used to transport raw milk also made butter. The raw buttermilk before pasturization is much better. I'd buy a gallon jug now and then, a large portion went into my wife's buttermilk donut (melt in your mouth ) and the rest went straight into my gullet.
[ exit singing; "Mem'ries...........:]
~B~

[hartlikeawheel]

Rocky mountain oysters anyone?

I ate part of one once. It was good. But I'll never eat another unless raw and attached. Snorting.

[joew]

I've heard of prairie oysters — raw egg tossed down with a dash of Tabasco, as I recall — but rocky mountain oysters are new to me. Please define, hart.

[booklady]

I can't wait to see hart's answer to that.

[mike]

Butter milk & rocky mountain oysters -- fresh from the blender... just kickin' it up a notch!

[booklady]

sweet and sour.......or sour and sweet......

[liriodendron]

joew said:

I've heard of prairie oysters — raw egg tossed down with a dash of Tabasco, as I recall — but rocky mountain oysters are new to me. Please define, hart.

As I recall, (though not from first hand experience - bleeeeeeeck), Rocky Mountain Oysters are those delicacies that remain when a bull becomes a steer.

Waste not, want not? I think not!

[liriodendron]

mike said:

Butter milk & rocky mountain oysters -- fresh from the blender... just kickin' it up a notch!

Emeril would be proud!

[brutus]

liriodendron said:

joew said:

I've heard of prairie oysters — raw egg tossed down with a dash of Tabasco, as I recall — but rocky mountain oysters are new to me. Please define, hart.

As I recall, (though not from first hand experience - bleeeeeeeck), Rocky Mountain Oysters are those delicacies that remain when a bull becomes a steer.

Waste not, want not? I think not!

They're usually deep-fried, which makes nearly anything a gourmet meal!!! ;D
I bet they'd go down realllly gooooood with sweet'n'sour sauce!
~B~

[joew]

They might be good sautéed with celery and scallions and served with browned butter, béchamel, or a port wine sauce with or without gorgonzola.

Let us know, Brutus (or anybody who gets the chance to try them).

[liriodendron]

joew said:

They might be good sautéed with celery and scallions and served with browned butter, béchamel, or a port wine sauce with or without gorgonzola.

Let us know, Brutus (or anybody who gets the chance to try them).

I'm not going to try it. Let's get Mikey!